“Live Your Life” is an unexpected album from Medusa Stone, their first since 2008’s “Shaking Hands.” Having put out solid, old school hard rock music since the early 2000s, the band is mostly known as a power trio (they added “Life” music producer Worth Weaver into the fold this year) with lead singer Justin Fox pulling double duty as guitarist.

Fox is a soulful singer with a lot of swagger. He can be a flamboyant guitarist; he certainly has the skills. But time and a little restraint has led Fox and the band – Dave Morse on bass and Jeremy Summers on drums — to say more with less.

Having seen the band play around town for almost a decade, the new songs find Medusa Stone as a new incarnation, far from the Justin Fox and Catfish Lane performance I saw on UNCW’s campus in 2004. “Live Your Life” feels distant from the bluesy Aerosmith meets Black Crowes punch on “Shaking Hands,” itself a gritty, fun, groove-heavy rock record. It finds the band stretching out its sound while remaining firmly in the guitar driven genre.

Medusa Stone could have easily kept the status quo, churning out another solid, blistering rock ‘n’ roll record with catchy songs that are great (and loud) performed live. They would have still grown as musicians, even as a bar band, whether playing cover song gigs or working on original material with local players like Tommy Brothers or Lincoln Morris. But change and growth on the new album came from unexpected avenues. Fox got married, had a child, lost a brother, even acted in a local play — “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” in 2010.

With “Live our Life,” Medusa Stone moves beyond adding to the big catalog of great but familiar rock ‘n’ roll songs. Here the band digs deep, gets personal and seems to just let go of convention that’s work worked for them for so long. It’s a batch of songs that occasionally echoes the ferocity and rock ‘n’ roll ethos of “Shaking Hands,” but puts forth a different side of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle by focusing on the impact of marriage, children and death.

Fox’s writing here is frank on songs like “Brother of Mine” and “All We Have.” The album is an open book about what he’s experienced starting a new life in the shadow of the old one. “Live Your Life” is saturated with light and darkness, of facing the truth at hand and discussing it. It’s an uplifting, easygoing album for songs about happiness and despair.

A polished storyteller on the playful “All We Have” in which he details wedding memories, Fox is equally picturesque on “Itch” waxing about downtown excursions and hard living with lyrics like, “Pulling me down with pain pills and vodka.” The band finds itself in beautiful, inordinate territory with album gem “All Goes Away,” the bittersweet “They’re So Glad” and soaring sing-along track “Coming Home Tonight.”

The songs recorded for “Live Your Life” shows Medusa Stone playing differently – stronger choruses, a little less crunch and subtle nuance with slide guitar and harmonies that pepper songs. “Shaking Hands” had two songs (“Good Time Friend” and “Wait For Me/Excessum”) that hinted at things to come, or at least an EP of earthier material. With its share of good-times material found on many a rock record, “Live Your Life” exists on the other side of things, not just in terms of losing a loved one, but life outside of bars and rock ‘n’ roll queens.

“Live Your Life” is a step forward for Medusa Stone. Its choruses and intimacy lend the album a feeling of family, not a temporary one.

[…] Local bluesy rockers Medusa Stone pair up with Greensboro’s House of Fools. Both bands like to craft a heightened sound when it comes to rock music – Medusa Stone oscillates between blistering, crunching rock and House of Fools is a mix of temperaments. It often explodes, exploring a smoky, moody sound that segues to epic territory that merges jam band largesse with 70’s rock ferocity. Medusa Stone just released a brand new album called “Live Your Life.” […]

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The WAE: Wilmington-area Arts & Entertainment is dedicated to experiencing, discussing and promoting the arts in Southeastern N.C. From theater and all manner of music to visual art, dance, festivals and more, The WAE is populated by people who are immersed in local A&E. If it’s about A&E in Southeastern N.C., then we’re all about it.